Sometimes we put expectations on ourselves that may actually in fact end up discouraging us.  We demand perfection of ourselves or we give up when we can’t find a regular way to find time with God.  Don’t let yourself fall into that trap; look for ways to keep strengthening that relationship with your Heavenly Father.

What do you go into church expecting?  Are you just waiting to be blown away each Sunday morning with new revelations and to be entertained?  Or do you cherish the rituals that speak to you deeply in your soul?  Take a few minutes to evaluate your mindset when you come to the house of God to worship.

God has plans for your day: how do you feel about that?  What are you going to do with the next 24 hours that He gives you?  How are you going to look at it?  What attitude will you have as the day begins?  We all look regularly into our planners and calendars and sometimes see things that may not be our heart’s desire.  What do we do with that as we step forward?

 What brings back memories to us?  What makes us remember something that happened to us?  Sometimes it’s music or a scent or perhaps a taste.  God uses things that are familiar to bring us back to us His story His life told while He was here on earth, particularly the ending of His story.  Come walk the familiar road leading to “doing this in remembrance of Me”.

 We all struggle sometimes with allowing the clutter in our minds and lives to take away from the true intent and purpose of significant moments in our lives.  Take a few moments to think about your heart and thoughts as you approach the communion table and evaluate whether your mind is on earthly things or on heavenly things as you take those steps.

 Food ironically consumes much of our energy and also occupies many of our thoughts throughout our lives.  Maybe we are the teenager who is ALWAYS hungry, or maybe we are the mom trying to fill that teenager’s empty leg.  Maybe we have to avoid certain foods due to allergies, or maybe we are the dad taking deep breaths as we deal with a toddler who is currently subsisting entirely on chicken nuggets and bananas.  Perhaps we have a struggle in our relationship with food - we don’t eat enough or we eat too much.  Whatever role food plays in your life, try to remember that God created us to incorporate our eating with fellowship with others.  Come and be conscious of how we use our mouths - both for chewing and savoring, as well as for encouraging and tearing down others.

Lauren Daigle has a song that begins like this:

I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I'm not enough

Every single lie that tells me I will never measure up

Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low?

Remind me once again just who I am because I need to know

Come explore the contrast between the lies you hear and the power of the truth about where your value lies and who you really are!

Every day inevitably holds “stuff” that you don’t want.  How you react to that “stuff” tells a lot about your character.  See how the author’s petulant soul is reflected in a moment of summer fun.  Then see how you can learn from that instance and why it matters.

Being real can be a challenge sometimes.  It can be tough to learn to balance our rose-tinted glasses on our face when life throws us curveballs.  And should we really even be wearing those glasses in the first place?  God calls us to follow Him with every fiber of our being, and in spite of our mood swings or personalities, He wants us to radiate the truths of His Gospel to the world around us.  How are you doing with living out what you claim to believe?

 Being real can be a challenge sometimes.  It can be tough to learn to balance our rose-tinted glasses on our face when life throws us curveballs.  And should we really even be wearing those glasses in the first place?  God calls us to follow Him with every fiber of our being, and in spite of our mood swings or personalities, He wants us to radiate the truths of His Gospel to the world around us.  How are you doing with living out what you claim to believe?

Wrestling with the big questions of our faith is essential.  Floating along on the surface of Christianity results in trite answers, and this does not encourage others to want to believe in this worldview.  To be honest, you shouldn’t settle for it either as meaning and understanding are essential when analyzing one’s beliefs.  Spend a few minutes wrestling with one of the big ones today as you read.

Do we let God’s grace meet us anywhere?  Perhaps we don’t want to “waste it” by pestering God with our ordinary everyday frustrations.  The incredible thing is that we have a God who can bring calm and sanity and clarity to each and every aspect of our lives, in all the things that matter to us.  Don’t be afraid to ask Him to bring a cool breeze of resolution into your situation, no matter how minor it may seem.

What Lies Beneath sounds a bit like a horror movie or novel.  Perhaps it is.  But true confession: most of us struggle with that reality in our everyday lives.   On the surface we seem like a pleasant enough person, but just underneath, we are sometimes a volcano bubbling with lava ready to burst.  Fortunately, we can take God’s promises to heart and find a better way to deal with our frustrations: let Him be the boss.

Sometimes imagery can really hammer a point home into our awareness of the world around us.  Earlier today I was ruminating about some accidents that caused minor damage to my home.  It reminded me of a picture I saw accompanying an article on the BBC once of abandoned places that had been entirely taken back over by nature.  Disturbingly, my thoughts also turned toward an episode of a police investigation TV show where a body was recovered in an advanced state of decomposition.  Let’s face it: things on this earth weren’t meant to last forever.  Tish Harrison Warren acknowledges this succinctly at the end of her chapter on brushing teeth: “I am dust polishing dust” (48).

When you pray, do you get down and kneel?  Do you place your weight upon your knees?  Even if you don’t physically do it, do you emotionally get down in order to look up?  Think about the posture of your body and your heart during prayer as you read this reflection.

“For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place,

 when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be.”  Psalm 139: 13-16

When your home is full of paint cans, moved furniture, and half-finished projects, it’s easy to feel like chaos has completely taken over your life. The stress, mess, and unexpected accidents can make ordinary days feel overwhelming and frustrating. But what if those hectic moments are not just inconveniences to endure? What if cleaning messes, fixing mistakes, and navigating household chaos can actually become moments that shape our perspective and deepen our gratitude? Can the most ordinary and messy parts of life reveal something meaningful about faith and the blessings we often overlook?

When you look down and your hands are covered in potting soil, it’s tempting to imagine your soul as something ethereal - too light and perfect for this world, something on a whole different level.  But are your hands and your soul so far away from each other?  Are they, in fact, unified in some way?  Can the act of planting flowers cause something beautiful to sprout inside us as well?

Life can be exhausting and feel chaotic, as we all know.  How do we wake up and face each day when that’s all that we can see on any given day?  You’ll encounter some “Dad-Advice” and also some reassurance that you’re not in those trenches (or that boat, whatever analogy works best for you) alone.

How do you feel about these words: repetitious, routine, ordinary, mundane?  Do they make you want to yawn, or can you find the importance and value of them?  Perhaps this post can help give you a new perspective on how to make these words more desirable and to help us see the value of them in our daily lives.